Brief Description of Plot
Jokubas takes his family to see Packingtown and they are shocked when they see all the penned up animals and the poor conditions they live in and the brutal ways they are slaughtered. Jurgis notices the many different horrific jobs at the slaughter house and how hortrible the entire slaughterign process is. He learns that no part of an animal goes to waste at Durham's and everything is made into something. Jurgis also learns that the meat spectator who is supposed to check for tuberculosis forgets to check a lot of the pigs that go through and how spilled meat is mixed in with the rest of the canned meat.
In Chapter 3, Jurgis gets a job shoveling guts at Browns with and is told to start working the next day. Another man, Jokubas, takes Jurgis and others to cattle and hog processing factories. They watch the killing, dressing and packaging of hogs done by machines. The cries of the dying hogs are specially horrible and heard by visitors. Many men perform specialized jobs on the hogs. Each part of the hog is handled by different men performing various specialized jobs. Before each hog goes into the chilling room, a government inspector is supposed to check it for tuberculosis. In this scene, the inspector lets many hogs go unchecked. The next stop is Brown's beef packing factory across the street. Here four to five hundred cattle are slaughtered every hour. The description is disgusting. The animals are herded into pens, stunned with sledgehammers and led to the killing beds, shackled and then slaughtered. Every piece from the animals is utilized for some purpose, including combs, buttons, glue, fertilizer and violin strings. Jokubas speaks sarcastically about the packing process, but Jurgis is just happy to be a part of this industry and have a source of income. Characters in Chapter
Jurgis
Jokubas Notable Passages
"The manner in which they did this was something to be seen and never forgotten...In the end, as with the hogs, the finished beef was run into the chilling room, to hang its appointed time" (39).
"No tiniest particle of organic matter was wasted in Durham;s...they made from the stomachs of the pigs, and albumen from the blood, and violin strings from the ill smelling entrails. When there was nothing else to be done with the thing, they first put it into a tank and got out of it all the tallow and frease adn then they made it into fertilizer" (40).
"Before the carcass was admitted here, however, it had to pass a governor inspector, who sat in the doorway and felt the glands in the neck for tuburculosis...and, as it were, put the stamp of official approval upon the things which were done in Durham's" (37).
Jokubas takes his family to see Packingtown and they are shocked when they see all the penned up animals and the poor conditions they live in and the brutal ways they are slaughtered. Jurgis notices the many different horrific jobs at the slaughter house and how hortrible the entire slaughterign process is. He learns that no part of an animal goes to waste at Durham's and everything is made into something. Jurgis also learns that the meat spectator who is supposed to check for tuberculosis forgets to check a lot of the pigs that go through and how spilled meat is mixed in with the rest of the canned meat.
In Chapter 3, Jurgis gets a job shoveling guts at Browns with and is told to start working the next day. Another man, Jokubas, takes Jurgis and others to cattle and hog processing factories. They watch the killing, dressing and packaging of hogs done by machines. The cries of the dying hogs are specially horrible and heard by visitors. Many men perform specialized jobs on the hogs. Each part of the hog is handled by different men performing various specialized jobs. Before each hog goes into the chilling room, a government inspector is supposed to check it for tuberculosis. In this scene, the inspector lets many hogs go unchecked. The next stop is Brown's beef packing factory across the street. Here four to five hundred cattle are slaughtered every hour. The description is disgusting. The animals are herded into pens, stunned with sledgehammers and led to the killing beds, shackled and then slaughtered. Every piece from the animals is utilized for some purpose, including combs, buttons, glue, fertilizer and violin strings. Jokubas speaks sarcastically about the packing process, but Jurgis is just happy to be a part of this industry and have a source of income.
Characters in Chapter
Jurgis
Jokubas
Notable Passages
"The manner in which they did this was something to be seen and never forgotten...In the end, as with the hogs, the finished beef was run into the chilling room, to hang its appointed time" (39).
"No tiniest particle of organic matter was wasted in Durham;s...they made from the stomachs of the pigs, and albumen from the blood, and violin strings from the ill smelling entrails. When there was nothing else to be done with the thing, they first put it into a tank and got out of it all the tallow and frease adn then they made it into fertilizer" (40).
"Before the carcass was admitted here, however, it had to pass a governor inspector, who sat in the doorway and felt the glands in the neck for tuburculosis...and, as it were, put the stamp of official approval upon the things which were done in Durham's" (37).